Jason Lin on Work Life Balance

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Jason Lin on Work Life Balance

Originally from a small fishing village in southeast China, Jason Lin immigrated to New York City when he was eight years old. He experienced culture shock because of the huge difference between his home village and a big city. Jason was surprised by New Yorker’s sense of individualism. Adapting to his new surroundings, for the first nine months of living in America Jason rode the subway by himself to explore his new home while his parents worked. This experience shaped him into becoming the person he is now. Shortly after, he and his family moved to upstate New York where so that they could take better care of him.

In 2011, Jason graduated with a Bachelors in business management and marketing. The job market was bare at the time but it didn’t have an affect as he had no clue what he wanted out of his professional pursuits. He lived at home and was working as a server at a local restaurant with his high school friends. One day, he decided to pack his bags, leave Rochester to test his luck in New York City. He applied to numerous internships since entry level marketing jobs were difficult to attain at the time. With luggage in hand, Jason went directly to his first interview. Jason, seeing that the interviewer was confused by his bag, explained his story and by the end of the meeting the interviewer offered him an entry level position as a paid ads coordinator. The pay wasn’t much but it was enough to get by. Jason has continued to work in digital marketing and works with Facebook ads, Google ads and e-commerce stores today through his own business, YJL Media LLC.

“I always envisioned myself as an entrepreneur. Even working at the agency, I was always doing stuff on the side. I always had side hustles, whether it’s like running ads for other people on the side when it was not part of the agency. Soon after I learned enough about marketing, I realized that I could do this myself. After two years I just felt it was time to go.”

The idea of moving to Hawaii came to Jason after he and his girlfriend grew tired of the hectic, New York lifestyle and yearned for a change of pace. They moved to Oahu less than a year ago and already feel the difference in their everyday. Jason shares that the work life balance he has created now is influenced by the work community he has being at BoxJelly.

“I’m kind of influenced by everyone else here as well. You know, a lot of people are very good at balancing life and work. So I’m kind of picking it up a little bit here. I feel that I’m getting a little bit lazy sometimes, but I think it’s a good thing.”

“I told myself when I left my advertising agency that whatever businesses I get into, I will not have a fiscal office. I want to have freedom over making more money and having a set office, or where we’ll have to go to talk to my employees. I came into BoxJelly because I was looking for a coworking space where I can just park myself there, have a place where you have a sense of community.”

When he was living in New York, Jason normally worked 12-hour days. Once he began working as his own boss and made BoxJelly his office space, his mindset with working shifted. Jason was able to create a better work life balance. He finds it most useful to create a schedule when he begins a work day. He list out of the tasks that need to get done for the day and schedules time slots for each. Doing this prevents him from going off on tangents or staying on one task for too long. Once five o’clock hits, he finishes everything and goes out to play basketball down the street. Depending on how much work he didn’t finish, he tries to complete after he goes home.

Another aspect that has changed since Jason moved to Hawaii besides his work life balance is his mindset on the idea of success. Previously, he believed that he needed to make a certain amount of money to call himself successful. But in the last year or two, he was able to shift his mindset to thinking, as long as he’s happy and my family’s healthy, he’s healthy, then it’s considered a success.

Jason hopes to give back to society one day by either contributing towards the end of world hunger or aiding the poor. He aspires to earn as much money as he can for the next ten to fifteen years so he can put his resources into giving back and becoming involved in the community.